Per Eklund – European Rallycross Champion in Saab 9-3 T16 4×4 (530hp)

October 2, 2015 Share the article:

Per Eklund is a famous Rally and Rallycross driver and Champion of course. He has competed in a number of different Motorsport disciplines, and perhaps the longest in European Rallycross Championship. Also, in this competition,…

Per Eklund is a famous Rally and Rallycross driver and Champion of course. He has competed in a number of different Motorsport disciplines, and perhaps the longest in European Rallycross Championship.

Also, in this competition, he became the champion of 1999 years, and is also known for winning the Pikes Peak 2002 in Saab 9-3 Viggen. Eklund was a Saab factory driver from 1970 to 1979. In 1982, however, the year after Saab discontinued its official rallying involvement, he achieved the brand’s last top position in a World Championship event, finishing fourth in the Swedish Rally driving a privately entered, Clarion-sponsored Saab 99 Turbo. He was always proud of that result, since the competition consisted mostly of four-wheel-drive cars, and the event was run in snow. This signified the end of the rally era at Saab, even though Eklund went on to drive an officially-entered Saab 900 Turbo in the British round of the 1997 World Rally Championship.

Eklund’s Saab 9-3 T16 4×4 in video game “Rallisport Challenge”

Eklund started driving in Rallycross by winning the first ever Swedish Rallycross event at Hedemora, on 17 October 1971. He first drove a Saab 96 V4, then a Saab 99 in its various sporting evolutions. He was always prominent, became 7th overall respectively 4th overall in the first and second European Championship series of 1973 and 1974, but his greatest successes have been in more modern times. Nowadays he is one of the fastest competitors of the FIA European Championship for Rallycross Drivers.

He was Champion in FIA European Rallycross 1999 competition with Saab 9-3 T16 4×4 (530hp). Unfortunately, the global network has no shots Eklund from that championship year, but we found one Eklund video from 1998:

In the title of video indicated that a this version of Saab has 800 hp. That was his Red Pikes Peak Saab. The Rallycross version had about 530hp:

Per Eklund – European Rallycross Champion in Saab 9-3 T16 4×4 (530hp) was last modified: October 2nd, 2015 by Goran Aničić